Locations>VERTICAL LOCATION>SEA SURFACE
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Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Monthly Data Products from NCDC Entry ID: RALPH_SSMI |
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Summary
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Abstract:
The National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) home page is "http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/". The Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Dataset home page on the WWW is "http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/ol/satellite/ssmi/ssmiproducts.html". For annonymous ftp, ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov, cd /pub/data/ssmi/1deg (1 degree), cd /pub/data/ssmi/25deg (2.5 degree). The Defense Satellite Meteorological Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager(SSM/I) became operational in July 1987 on the F-8 satellite. Subsequent SSM/I's have been flown on the F-10 (November 1990), F-11 (December 1991), F-12 (August 1994), and most recently, F-13 (March 1995) satellites. The SSM/I is a seven channel passive microwave radiometer operating at four frequencies (19,35, 22,235, 37.0, and 85.5 GHz) and dual-polarization (except at 22.235 GHz which is V-polarization only). Researchers in the Microwave Sensing Group (MSG) of the Land Sciences Branch (LSB) are actively involved in SSM/I algorithm development and validation, and the application of such algorithms for weather forecasting and analysis, and CLIMATE EVALUATION. Additionally, the SSM/I is being used to develop algorithms for use on the NOAA-K,L,M Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU), which will contain some frequencies similar to those on the SSM/I (e.g., 23.8, 31.4, and 89.0 GHz), but will not have polarization information. These SSM/I products are useful for evaluating the mean climate state, it's interannual and seasonal variations, and the detection of anomalies associated with ENSO and regional climatic variations. The MSG has assembled a time series of the entire SSM/I archive, which includes data from July 1987 to the present. Monthly average products are produced for precipitation, cloud liquid water, total precipitable water, snow cover, sea-ice cover, and ocean surface wind speed. A) 1-Degree Products The files have the following naming convention: ppp.yy where ppp=product type and yy=year (e.g., 87 for 1987). Each field is stored as a 1440 byte record of 4-byte real variables which have been generated on a personal computer. Each record contains 360 values corresponding to each degree of longitude, with the first element corresponding to longitude 0.5 degrees East, the second 1.5 E, etc. and the last 0.5 degrees West. The first record contains data centered at latitude 89.5 degrees South, the second record contains data centered at 88.5 S, etc. and the last 89.5 N. Missing data are indicated by a value of -999.0. The first 180 records in the data set correspond to January of that year, the next 180 is February, etc. The total length of each annual data set is 180*1440*12=3,110,400 bytes. The following describes the content of the 1 degree gridded files: 1. cfr.yy - Monthly mean cloud fraction (0 - 1.0) 2. ice.yy - Monthly mean sea-ice cover (0 - 100 percent) 3. lwp.yy - Monthly mean liquid water path (1000 * mm) 4. pfr.yy - Monthly mean rain fraction (0 - 1.0) 5. pre.yy - Monthly rainfall (mm) 6. snw.yy - Monthly mean snow cover fraction (0 - 1.0 percent) 7. ssa.yy - Monthly mean sampling fraction (0 - 1.0) 8. win.yy - Monthly mean surface wind speed (m/sec) 9. wvp.yy - Monthly mean total precipitable water (mm) B) 2.5-Degree Products The files have the following naming convention: ppp.mon where ppp=product type. Each field is stored as a 576 byte record of 4-byte real variables which have been generated on a personal computer. Each record contains 144 values corresponding to each 2.5 degree of longitude, with the first element corresponding to longitude 1.25 degrees East, the second 2.5 E, etc. and the last 1.25 degrees West. The first record contains data centered at latitude 88.75 degrees South, the second record contains data centered at 86.25 S, etc. and the last 88.75 N. Missing data are indicated by a value of -999.0. The first 72 records in the data set correspond to January 1987, 72 is February 1987, etc. and the last 72 records correspond to December 1995. The total length of each data set is 72*576*9=4,478,976 bytes. The following describes the content of the 2.5 degree gridded files: 1. cfr.yy - Monthly mean cloud fraction (0 - 1.0) 2. lwp.yy - Monthly mean liquid water path (1000*mm) 3. pf1.yy - Monthly mean rain fraction (0 - 1.0) using 85 GHz scattering algorithm over land, scattering/emission over ocean (ALG#1) 4. pr1.yy - Monthly rainfall (mm) using ALG#1 5. pf2.yy - Monthly mean rain fraction (0 - 1.0) using 37 GHz scattering algorithm over land, emission over ocean (ALG#2) 6. pr2.yy - Monthly rainfall (mm) using ALG#2 7. ssa.yy - Monthly mean sampling fraction (0 - 1.0) NOTES a. If the data is used in other computer environments, the data may have to be byte-swapped (e.g., byte 1 becomes byte 4, byte 2 becomes byte 3, etc.). b. The products are generated from a single satellite and contain the following: F8 satellite: July 1987 - June 1991 F11 satellite: January 1992 - May 1995 F13 satellite: June 1995 - present There are some missing data periods as noted above. The overpass times of each of these satellites is approximately 6am/6pm local time. |
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Description: Access the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Monthly Data Products from NCDC. Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Monthly Data Products from NCDC |
Geographic Coverage
| N: 90.0 | S: -90.0 | E: 180.0 | W: -180.0 |
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Data Set Citation
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Dataset Originator/Creator:
Ralph Ferraro, E/RA2
Dataset Title: Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) Monthly Data Products from NCDC Dataset Publisher: NOAA/NESDIS/Office of Research and Applications Online Resource: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/satellite/ssmi/ssmiproducts.html |
Temporal Coverage
| Start Date: 1987-07-01 |
Location Keywords
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GEOGRAPHIC REGION
> GLOBAL
VERTICAL LOCATION > BOUNDARY LAYER VERTICAL LOCATION > SEA SURFACE VERTICAL LOCATION > TROPOSPHERE |
Data Resolution
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Temporal Resolution:
Monthly
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Science Keywords
| ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC WATER VAPOR >PRECIPITABLE WATER [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >ATMOSPHERIC WINDS >SURFACE WINDS [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >CLOUDS >CLOUD PROPERTIES >CLOUD FREQUENCY [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >CLOUDS >CLOUD MICROPHYSICS >CLOUD LIQUID WATER/ICE [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >CLOUDS >CLOUD MICROPHYSICS >CLOUD PRECIPITABLE WATER [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >PRECIPITATION >LIQUID WATER EQUIVALENT [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >PRECIPITATION >PRECIPITATION AMOUNT [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >PRECIPITATION >PRECIPITATION RATE [Definition] |
| ATMOSPHERE >PRECIPITATION >RAIN [Definition] |
| CRYOSPHERE >SEA ICE >SEA ICE CONCENTRATION >ICE COMPACTNESS [Definition] |
| CRYOSPHERE >SNOW/ICE >SNOW COVER [Definition] |
| TERRESTRIAL HYDROSPHERE >SNOW/ICE >SNOW COVER [Definition] |
| OCEANS >OCEAN WINDS >SURFACE WINDS [Definition] |
| OCEANS >SEA ICE >SEA ICE CONCENTRATION [Definition] |
ISO Topic Category
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CLIMATOLOGY/METEOROLOGY/ATMOSPHERE
GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION INLAND WATERS OCEANS |
Platform
| DMSP 5D-2/F10 >Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F10 [Information] |
| DMSP 5D-2/F11 >Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F11 [Information] |
| DMSP 5D-2/F12 >Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F12 [Information] |
| DMSP 5D-2/F13 >Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F13 [Information] |
| DMSP 5D-2/F8 >Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-F8 [Information] |
Instrument
| SSMI >Special Sensor Microwave/Imager [Information] |
Project
| ESIP >Earth Science Information Partners Program [Information] |
Quality
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Problem Areas a. The 2.5 degree pr2 and pf2 products have artifacts along coastlines and the sea-ice boundary. These are due to the larger footprint sizes of the lower frequency channels (e.g., 19 GHz) used in the retrievals. b. The 1 degree rainfall product does not make a distinction between "zero" rain and "indeterminate" rain (due to snow and ice cover), which is indicated as zero rain. It is done within the 2.5 degree products. |
Keywords
| CLIMATE EVALUATION |
| CLOUD LIQUID WATER |
| GRID DATA |
| MONTHLY DATA |
| OCEAN SURFACE WIND SPEED |
| SEA-ICE COVER |
| SNOW COVER |
| TOTAL PRECIPITABLE WATER |
| WEATHER FORECASTING |
| TEMS |
| GTOS |
| G3OS/ |
Originating Center
| NOAA/NESDIS/NCDC |
Data Center
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National Climatic Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
[Information]
Data Center URL: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/
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Distribution
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Distribution_Media:
Online
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Personnel
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RALPH
FERRARO Role: INVESTIGATOR Email: Ralph.Ferraro at noaa.gov Contact Address: ESSIC/CICS 2207 Computer and Space Sciences Building University of Maryland City: College Park Province or State: MD Country: USA |
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SCOTT
A.
RITZ Role: DIF AUTHOR Phone: 301-614-5126 Fax: 301-614-5268 Email: Scott.A.Ritz at nasa.gov Contact Address: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Global Change Master Directory City: Greenbelt Province or State: Maryland Postal Code: 20771 Country: USA |
Publications/References
Harbaugh, A.W., 1990, A simple contouring program for gridded data:
U.S.Geological Survey Open-File Report 90144, 37 p.
Harbaugh, A.W., and McDonald, M.G., 1996, User's documentation for
MODFLOW96, an update to the U.S. Geological Survey modular finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96485, 56 p.
Hinkle, S.R., and Snyder, D.T., 1997, Comparison of
chlorofluorocarbon-age dating with particle- tracking results of a regional
ground-water flow model of the Portland Basin, Oregon and Washington: U.S.
Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2483.
McDonald, M.G., and Harbaugh, A.W., 1988, A modular three-dimensional
finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of
Water-Resources Investigations, book 6, chap. A1, 586 p.
Orzol, L.L., and Truini, M., in press, Evaluation of factors that
influence estimated zones of transport for six municipal wells in Clark County,
Washington: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report
97-4224, 114 p.
Pollock, D.W.,1994, User's guide for MODPATH/MODPATH-PLOT, version 3-A
particle tracking post-processing package for MODFLOW, the U.S. Geological
Survey finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 94464, [variously paged].
Snyder, D.T., Wilkinson, J.M. and Orzol, L.L., 1996, Use of a
ground-water flow model with particle tracking to evaluate ground-water
vulnerability, Clark County, Washington: U. S. Geological Survey Open-File
Report 96328, 71 p
U.S.Geological Survey Open-File Report 90144, 37 p.
Harbaugh, A.W., and McDonald, M.G., 1996, User's documentation for
MODFLOW96, an update to the U.S. Geological Survey modular finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 96485, 56 p.
Hinkle, S.R., and Snyder, D.T., 1997, Comparison of
chlorofluorocarbon-age dating with particle- tracking results of a regional
ground-water flow model of the Portland Basin, Oregon and Washington: U.S.
Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 2483.
McDonald, M.G., and Harbaugh, A.W., 1988, A modular three-dimensional
finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques of
Water-Resources Investigations, book 6, chap. A1, 586 p.
Orzol, L.L., and Truini, M., in press, Evaluation of factors that
influence estimated zones of transport for six municipal wells in Clark County,
Washington: U.S. Geological Survey Water-Resources Investigations Report
97-4224, 114 p.
Pollock, D.W.,1994, User's guide for MODPATH/MODPATH-PLOT, version 3-A
particle tracking post-processing package for MODFLOW, the U.S. Geological
Survey finite-difference ground-water flow model: U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 94464, [variously paged].
Snyder, D.T., Wilkinson, J.M. and Orzol, L.L., 1996, Use of a
ground-water flow model with particle tracking to evaluate ground-water
vulnerability, Clark County, Washington: U. S. Geological Survey Open-File
Report 96328, 71 p
Creation and Review Dates
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SERF Creation Date:
2006-06-05
SERF Last Revision Date: 2006-06-08 |
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